Theme suggestion – Elementary (grade) school Arts Site

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  evelynyvonnetheriault · Member · Jan 23, 2010 at 3:08 pm

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  Greetings,
  I am considered my school’s blog expert (!?!?) so I’ve been asked to set up a blog that will:
  1. showcase student’s artwork, drama, music etc. – thus lots of images that I hope can be manipulated as easily as possible.
  2. serve as online headquarters for ongoing projects (i.e. music shows etc.)
  Any suggestions as to best theme for that type of application?

  My experience is with my personal and classroom sites:
  http://acanadianfamily.com using Andreas04
  http://allthingsquebec.wordpress.com/ using Depo Masthead

  Evelyn in Montreal

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  raincoaster · Member · Jan 24, 2010 at 3:21 am

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  Could you define what you mean by image manipulation? We don’t really have image editing tools at WordPress.com.

  Offhand, I’d suggest that you use a theme with a large center column, only one sidebar, and a custom header. I like Vigilance, but any white theme should display the artwork nicely.

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  1tess · Moderator Emeritus · Jan 24, 2010 at 3:48 am

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  I would also suggest that flexible width themes are more difficult to work with images, than fixed width themes are.

  If you are concerned about how your pictures and text look together.

  That is, as the reader makes a theme wider or narrower, the browsers have various definitions of how things are displayed, and your readers will have different resolutions on their computers. Things look different on different computers etc.

  If you are using a windows machine, then seriously look into Windows Live Writer. To be honest, I’m using a Mac so I have not personally used that free program, but many many volunteers here have recommended it. Especially for uploading pictures and making tables to display those pictures.

  Be aware that the “gallery” function here on wp is embryonic, and windows live writer would very likely be very very helpful.

  (just my opinion, but relying on the “gallery function” here is not satisfying, nor easy to use if you want something more than a whole lot of pictures displayed in a grid)

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  evelynyvonnetheriault · Member · Jan 24, 2010 at 3:53 am

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  Thank you for your reply, Raincoaster. Your suggestions are appreciated and I will start there.

  Image manipulation
  I meant that in my Andreas theme once I set up my post with the pictures they stay where I put them. They stay the same whether I’m viewing the post on my front page, or whether I’m viewing them after clicking on the post title.

  With the Depo Masthead I eventually realized that the image is small when viewing the post on the front page with three columns, but when you click on the post title it opens on its own page – the images are larger and the text moves around. Which I’ve found out can be good BUT I’ve learned to keep the post simple with a centered image and standard font size.

  I was a bit overwhelmed choosing from all the themes because it would take me time to figure out which were going to act like the Depo theme.

  Thank you again for the suggestions about where to start.

  Evelyn

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  evelynyvonnetheriault · Member · Jan 24, 2010 at 3:56 am

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  Thank you 1Tess – I just saw your post after I posted mine!
  That is very useful information and will be another criteria I use when choosing.
  Evelyn